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SPECIAL REPORTS
New approach sought for high school
Dozens of students stay after school everyday to work on their projects. Teachers, who earn the same salary as those in the public high schools, also spend countless extra hours making sure kids are working toward mastery.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Olivia Degitz and Austin Lucas are experiencing school like they never have before.
No lockers. Available laptops for every student. And only one grade.
That's because Metro Early College High School -- a science, technology, engineering and math school in Columbus, Ohio -- provides a loose atmosphere but expects a lot from its students, including a grade of "A" to move on in their studies.
Then there are third-year students Zakia Nasrin and Micah Dillard, who have achieved some of the requirements of high school within two years and are taking a biology course about two miles away on the campus of Ohio State University.
Characteristics such as these have Stan Maynard looking closely at Metro as he formulates a plan for a similarly styled high school to open on Marshall University's campus within the next three years.
Maynard, executive director of the June Harless Center and associate dean for the College of Education and Human Services at Marshall, helped orchestrate the 21st century model school that opened last year in a wing of Kellogg Elementary and is working toward the same at Vinson Middle School.
But the longtime educator has a much broader goal, to which Metro High School is addressing through project-based learning, individualized instruction and a dedication to students that most have never experienced.
"We want to be the Cleveland Clinic of educational reform," Maynard said of the purpose of a science, technology, engineering and math -- or STEM -- school at Marshall. "It is intended to be an example of what high schools could be in West Virginia."
The idea of a STEM school on Marshall's campus was first discussed publicly late in 2008 when Metro High School Principal Marcy Raymond brought two of her students to Cabell County for a presentation.
Then, at a January Cabell County Schools high school restructuring meeting, Metro was among a handful of schools that committee members learned about as they continue to formulate a new educational foundation for Huntington and Cabell Midland high schools.
Inside Metro
Metro High School, Maynard said, is the best model for Marshall's future high school, though he visited and researched at least a half dozen others. First, Metro's foundation was laid by the president of Ohio State University and is located on the outskirts of campus.
Metro also is relatively young. It is only in its third year and is working toward the official graduation of its first group of students in 2010.
Maynard said it's a model that can be planted almost anywhere, and a lottery system means students who apply are randomly selected to attend.
"We looked at some other schools, and many were very costly," he said. "We felt some of the models couldn't be replicated in Appalachia. Metro was more cost-effective and has had good results."
Metro High School opened in 2006 to a group of 96 freshmen, or first-year students, as they like to be called. It is the product of Ohio State and Battelle, an international science and technology company.
"The president of Ohio State and our CEO had a conversation, lamenting that there weren't enough people coming into the science and engineering school and not enough people applying to Battelle," said Diana Wolterman, Battelle's education project manager who is stationed at Metro.
Their talks filtered out into the community and 16 school districts in Franklin County. Wolterman said it didn't take long for support to grow.
The building Metro uses was donated by the university, which doesn't charge rent and has committed to paying all the utility bills through next year.
All but two of the school districts pay Metro $6,300 per student, which is the amount the districts receive from the state for each child.
It is not a charter school, but a high school operated by the Educational Council, which is made up of a confederation of the 16 public school districts. Students who attend Metro are concurrently enrolled at the high school in their home districts. The system, Wolterman said, means students can participate in clubs and sports, and the high schools can count the students' grades.
"They can claim the student as theirs, but they get educated here," Wolterman said.
Battelle has provided funds for operating and startup costs, which decrease each year as the school works toward a self-sustaining model.
Because of new costs associated with bringing the school to full capacity, Principal Raymond said the school now requires about $11,000 per student. In September, when the new school year starts, Metro will have students in all four grade levels and be operating at the near capacity of 400 students.
There are now 287 students and 18 teachers for a 16:1 student/teacher ratio, about the same ratio as Cabell County's high schools.
Raymond said at maximum capacity, it would cost about $9,300 per student, leaving a $3,000 gap from what the school districts provide per student. When it embarks on its own in the fall of 2010, the school will be looking for state money, grants and partnerships to maintain financial stability.
Initial startup costs, which included building renovations, staff and curriculum development, was about $560,000.
Alternative approach
With all the creative, yet tangible, things going on at Metro, the best advice teachers and students said they could give to Marshall officials was flexibility -- whether that means adapting the syllabus from one term to another or allowing students ample time to reach mastery of a subject. The only thing that is firm is giving students the best chance for success by any means possible.
"I think (these kids) want a different way of doing things," Raymond said. "The ability to learn differently and trying things differently."
But if you ask Neal Bluel, who is teaching research methods to third-year students, much of what Metro teachers are doing isn't new.
"It's almost as if we learn about the best practices in college, and it's just they don't usually get applied (in public schools)," he said. "The thing I love about Metro is the energy young teachers have. It gets thwarted in public schools."
Of those interviewed during an early February trip to Metro, most said the public school system is afraid of a massive overhaul.
"It's a heart-string type of thing," Bluel said. "If someone is successful, they think, 'What was wrong with the way I learned?' The world is changing and we need to change with it."
For social studies teacher Jeff Elliott, that means overcoming a fear of technology. He said he didn't realize what he had at his fingertips until he came to Metro and started exploring the programs on his Apple laptop.
He said technology is not just PowerPoint presentations, although combining it with video clips and online maps means students are thinking across a broader spectrum and utilizing technology.
"We try to use technology to solve problems rather than just engage the kids," Elliott said. "It enriches their learning."
One project Elliott has his students working on is creating short documentaries that get posted on YouTube.com. The project, he said, helps students learn about American and world history and geography by connecting the past to the present.
Not the first time
A STEM school at Marshall wouldn't be the first time another education option existed on campus. From the mid-1890s through 1970, the Marshall Laboratory School was a place of innovation and where student teachers learned the profession.
As costs increased and student teaching moved out into the schools, the K-12 school no longer became viable.
According to former student Thomas F. Scott, who compiled a history of the lab school in 2001, three generations of Huntington children received their basic education on Marshall's campus.
"By the 1960s ... the student body, now racially integrated, was essentially all on the college track, no matter their demographic origin," Scott wrote. "The basic premise was that learning could be fun. The student learned to read and express himself both verbally and by written word ... He was taught to think and reason in a logical matter to achieve problem solving."
Marshall University President Stephen Kopp wonders what could have been had the school stayed open. That is one reason why he strongly supports Maynard's venture to launch a new educational option.
"The current vision is on campus. A 21st century version of the 20th century lab school," Kopp said.
Maynard said he wants the new school to include fine arts and not just become a magnet school for math and science. Nor does he want to eliminate those from around the state to attend, even if it would mean adding a virtual academy component.
It would, like Metro, be open to incoming high school freshmen, regardless of their achievement levels to that point. It also would accept students with special needs, physical handicaps and learning disabilities, which make up 11 percent of Metro's current student body.
The school, Maynard and others have said, would provide students with a new way of learning, an environment of high expectations and a vision of long-term success that comes as a result of hard work and dedication. Public education as it stands cannot enable every child to reach his or her potential and become a productive adult in what has become a global economy, he said.
"We cannot accept mediocrity to be competitive in the 21st century," Maynard said. "If we allow a 'C' average -- that person has not been challenged. That person may not be capable of being a producer. We are about creating producers."
